Little Girl
by Dara Tavar
Summary: Casey's in her room and no one but Nora knows why. When Nora won't tell him, Derek goes to find out why for himself. He didn't plan on having the conversation that he did with her, but he found out a lot about her and who she really was. Enjoy! Oneshot.
1. Chapter 1

**I had the idea for this while I was listening to "The Little Girl" by John Michael Montgomery. I was in the mood for a sadder story when I started writing this... but I just finished it and am in a happier mood so I changed my original idea for the story's ending. So it's happier. I hope you enjoy it. Please, no flames... I'm fine with ranting, but not flames. People have gotten blocked from my site for flames. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the story. Oh, I was also listening to another song by J.M.M. and I put some of the lyrics into words that will be said later in the story. Enjoy!**

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**Little Girl**

Derek jogged down the stairs before making his way into the kitchen. "Good morning everyone." He called out in a happy voice. He suddenly stopped and counted the people in the kitchen. "Hey… where's Casey? Don't tell me that she's still in bed!? It's a beautiful Saturday morning, she should be up. Besides, I wanted to know if she wanted to catch a movie today."

"She's in her room. And no, she's not still sleeping." Lizzie replied. "She never comes out of her room on June first… she hasn't for the past three years that we've lived here."

"Why?" Derek asked, raising an eyebrow. "I never noticed…"

"I don't know." Lizzie turned to look at him. "She's never told me. And how could you **not** notice?!"

Derek merely shrugged.

"Told you what?" George asked as he and Nora walked into the kitchen. "And not notice what?"

"Mom, why doesn't Casey ever come out of her room on June first?" Lizzie asked, turning to look at her mom.

Nora suddenly stopped, turning to face Lizzie. "Why do you suddenly want to know? You've never asked before."

"I was wondering… I had asked Lizzie here, but she was of no help to me." Derek responded, smiling a Nora.

Nora swallowed hard. "Um… What's for breakfast?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Mom!" Lizzie cried out.

"Whatever…" Derek rolled his eyes at her. "I'll just go ask her myself." He turned to leave.

"Derek!" Nora cried out. "Don't!"

He turned back around to face her, one eyebrow raised. "And why shouldn't I?"

Nora sighed. "Derek, for one day of the year can you just leave Casey alone? You can bug her twice as much tomorrow… Just for today… stay away from her."

Derek flashed her a large smirk. "Actually Nora, for your information, I wasn't going to bug Casey… I haven't bugged Casey since New Years Day… two years ago. I was actually going to ask if she wanted to go to the movies with me."

"Derek… just stay as far away from Casey as you can today." Nora replied.

"But… why won't you tell us anything?" Edwin asked.

Nora turned away and looked over at George who merely shrugged and turned away from the kids to make him a cup of coffee. "Just because…" Nora responded after getting no help from her husband.

Derek motioned for Edwin to continue with the questions.

"But… why won't you?" he asked, sending Derek a thumbs up sign. "Does it have something to do with when you and her dad separated or something?"

"No Ed… that was later on in the year." Lizzie replied.

"Then what's so important about the first of this month to her?" Edwin asked.

Derek stopped and peeked back around the corner, he wanted to know the answer to this one. He'd been going to go to Casey's room.

"It's not really an important day to her… just a day she'd rather forget." Nora responded in a quiet voice.

"Why?" Lizzie asked slowly.

"I can't say…" she looked down a bit sadly. "But back to my previous question… What's for breakfast?" she turned and smiled at them. Her smile quickly faded. "Where's Derek?" she cried out.

"Oh… he went up to talk to Casey." Edwin responded before putting a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.

"He did what?!" Derek heard Nora cry out as he reached Casey's door.

He snickered to himself before knocking on Casey's door.

"Who is it and what do you want?" he heard Casey call out in a low voice.

"It's me, Derek… I wanted to talk to you." He responded.

"Well whatever you want to talk to me about…" she sighed lightly, not feeling the need to offend Derek or make him angry with her. "Can it wait till tomorrow?" she asked in a tired voice.

"Not really." He replied, wondering why she seemed so frustrated.

"Well, it'll have to… now, go away!" her voice was angry… and yet Derek could tell that she was sad. He could tell by the sound of her voice that it was cracked… and that meant she must have been crying, he wondered if he was the reason she was crying.

"Case… come on. I'm not going to go away. You're just going to have to let me in." Derek gripped her doorknob. He was determined to find out why she seemed so angry, and yet, so sad at the same time.

He heard a light sigh come from the other side of the door. "Fine…" the word came as though she'd whispered it.

When she didn't open the door Derek slowly turned the knob.

He opened it up and looked in.

Casey was sitting at her window, looking out at the sky… tears stained her cheeks.

Derek moved into her room before closing the door. "What's the matter Casey? Why are you crying?" he asked before moving closer to her and kneeling down beside her on one knee.

She sat there quietly, staring out into the sky.

Derek slowly reached up to whip away her tears.

At his touch Casey jumped slightly, but quickly relaxed under his touch.

She sighed lightly before her sat down beside her.

"Come on Case… babe… You know that you can tell me anything, right?" he asked quietly. "I'm your boyfriend… you can talk to me about anything."

At this Casey turned to look at him. "Oh Derek!" she cried out before burying her head in his chest and began to cry again.

Derek gently pulled Casey onto his lap. "Hey… it's alright." He stated in a soothing voice. He gently kissed the top of her head.

Casey pulled away and looked into his eyes. "I don't deserve someone as sweet as you. I haven't even been fully honest with you!" she cried out before burying her head in his chest again, crying even harder.

"What are you talking about Casey?" Derek asked, gently rubbing her back and rocking her back and forth in a soothing manner.

"Nora… in't my mal mom…" she stated into his shirt.

"Nora what?" Derek asked, not able to understand her mumbled words.

Casey pulled away, looking into his eyes again. "Nora's not my real mom… I'm not even related to her or Lizzie's dad."

"What are you talking about Case? They're your parents, aren't they? Lizzie's your sister, right?"

Casey shook her head. "No. They're my _adoptive_ parents… Lizzie's my _adoptive_ sister. They adopted me when I was six years old… Lizzie was only two so she doesn't remember that they adopted me. They always told her that they lost all the pictures they had taken of me when I was little in a fire. That was their excuse for not having baby pictures of me."

"Then… who are your parents? Do you ever go and see them?" Derek asked as she laid her head against his chest.

"Sometimes… You know how every year, during the summer, I fly away for two weeks?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Yeah… won't you be leaving tomorrow?"

"Yes… Well, I always fly to West Union, West Virginia… to see my grandparents. They take me to see my parents. We have to go out into the country and to the top of the hill behind their house… there's a cemetery there…" Casey trailed off.

"Oh…" Derek began in a low tone. "Your parents are dead."

"Yeah… and I remember the night that they died too."

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Derek asked.

There was a quiet knock on the door.

"Casey? Is Derek in there?" they heard Edwin ask.

Lizzie slowly opened the door and before she saw them, Casey slid off Derek's lap.

"Are you okay Casey?" she asked when she saw the tears that covered Casey's cheeks and Derek's wet shirt.

Casey nodded.

"Do you want us to get Derek out of here for you?" she asked.

"No…" Casey began before laying her head on Derek's shoulder and whipping away her tears.

"Out! Out now!" Marti cried out as she moved into Casey's room.

"Smarti…" Derek began.

"No Derek… you stay here with Casey." Marti said giving them a light smile. She quickly turned to Edwin and Lizzie. "Now you two…" she began, waving an accusing finger at them, "out now!" she cried out before pointing out of the room.

Edwin backed up and walked away. "Come on Lizzie… before you make her mad. Remember, she takes after Derek!" he called as he moved back downstairs.

Lizzie sighed before turning away. "Fine…" she mumbled as she walked away.

Marti watched as she went downstairs. "Now…" she turned back to Derek and Casey, "Derek… kiss her and make her feel better!" she instructed.

"Smarti…" Derek smiled lightly at her.

"No!" she waved a finger in his direction. "It's your job to make her feel better… you're her boyfriend."

"Maybe we shouldn't have told her…" Derek began.

"Even if you didn't… I would have found out somehow."

"Are you sure about that?" Derek asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Yes… I'm a very smart nine year old you know."

Derek smiled and shook his head lightly. "Fine Smarti… you wanna give us some privacy now?"

"Okay… _Smerek_…" She never called him that anymore; she always said that she was too old for it. With that Marti moved out of the room, closing the door behind her.

"So… do you wanna talk about it now?" Derek asked before pulling Casey back onto his lap.

Casey nodded. "Yeah… I think you should know…" Casey trailed off, sighing lightly before whipping at a few stray tears that rolled down her cheeks.

Derek gently lifted her into the air as he stood up. He moved over to her bed and sat down, still holding Casey on his lap and in his arms.

She began a little sadly. "They'd never believed in God and they didn't raise me to believe in him either. They never told me his name, never read me his word, never kissed me or hugged me… They were two non-believer's walking lost in this world; they took me, their baby with them… I was such a sad little girl. My daddy drank all day and my momma did drugs… they never wanted to play or give kisses and hugs."

"I'm sorry Case…" Derek pulled her tighter against him and gently kissed her on her temple.

Casey smiled lightly at him. But her smile faded before she began with her story again. "I'd be sitting on our couch, watching TV while my mom got wasted, and then fell asleep, and my dad went out. And the drinking and the fighting just got worse every night. Hours later, when my mom was waking up and my dad was getting home… I'd be hiding behind the couch."

"Why would you be hiding?" Derek asked, gently rubbing her back.

"Because they'd always start fighting. And I mean physically fighting. Every night, like it always did, the bad just got worse… with every slap and every curse…" Casey sighed. "Until the last night… I was six… My dad came home in a drunken rage one night and they got into a huge fight…"

"What happened?"

"My dad used a gun on my mom… then he took his own life." She stated in a small voice. "It happened twelve years ago to this day… When the police showed up… my mom had bled to death, and my dad had shot himself in the head, so he'd died instantly. They found me sitting beside them…"

Derek hugged her and kissed her.

Casey sighed lightly. "While they were fighting… I saw a man in a white rob with brown hair sitting beside me… I didn't know who he was then, but he pulled me onto his lap and hugged me while my dad killed my mom and then himself. Then these people from the city came and took me away… that's when they took me to Nora and her husband." She looked up into his eyes. "Derek, they kissed me and hugged me ever day. They even took me to church with them."

Derek nodded, not wanting to interrupt her.

"The first day of Sunday school, my teacher walked in and saw me standing, all alone, by a picture of Him. I said 'I know that man up there on that cross… I don't know his name, but I know he got off. Cause he was there in my old house, and held me close to his side… as I hid there behind our couch the night that my parents died.' I found out who He was, and ever since then I've always believed in Him. We went to church until they started fighting."

"Case… I'm sorry." Derek looked at her sadly.

Casey smiled faintly at him. "Derek… why are you so nice to me?"

"Because I'm your boyfriend… What, did you expect me to be mean to you?"

Casey laughed lightly. "Well, that's more of how every other guy I dated treated me." She smiled fondly at him. "My mom, my real mom, always read me Cinderella to get me to leave her alone… and I hoped it would come true, that one day my Prince Charming would come and rescue me from my home."

"You like romantic movies and I love that about you… You can cry at sappy movies that you've seen hundreds of times…"

"Let me guess… as every other guy's said, you hate that and it gets on your nerves." Casey responded with a frustrated sigh.

"Actually, no… I love it about you. I love to sit by you and watch you instead of the movie. I'll never forget the look you gave me when you watched Romeo kiss Juliet." Derek smiled lovingly at her. "All this time that you've been waiting… you don't have to wait any longer. I can love you like that if you give me the chance. Case… I'd move Heaven and Earth if you would be my girl forever. I'll give you my heart, I'll be all that you need, I'll show you you're everything that's precious to me. I'll never make a promise to you that I know I can't keep. So when I say forever, that exactly what I mean. I mean, I'm no Casanova… but I know this much is true… babe, when it comes to you, I'll hold nothing back."

"Oh… Derek…" Casey purred happily.

"And you know what… I don't care what my dad and Nora think… I want to spend the rest of my life with you Casey." Derek slid Casey off his lap and moved off her bed before dropping down on one knee.

Casey's eyes grew wide when he pulled a small, black, velvet box out of his pocket. She quickly covered her mouth and hot tears quickly blurred her vision.

"Casey, whatever your last name used to be, McDonald... will you marry me?" Derek asked before opening the box to reveal a beautiful diamond ring.

"Oh Derek…" Casey said after moving her hand away from her mouth. "Yes… yes, of course I will."

Derek smiled happily before taking out the ring and sliding it on her finger.

As soon as the ring was on her finger, Casey threw her arms around Derek's neck and kissed him passionately.

"That's what I was hoping you'd say." He whispered when she pulled away from him.

"Come on…" Casey said, pulling him to his feet.

"Where are we going?"

"To tell everyone else and show them the ring." Casey responded.

"But… you haven't even looked at the ring yet. Don't you want to look at it and tell me if you like it or not?" Derek asked a confused look on his face.

"Derek… I don't care how big the ring is, how fancy it is, even how much you paid for it, or what it looks like … I already _love_ it." She said, reaching up to hold his face in her hands. "You gave it to me… no other ring can ring more to me now. All the counts is that this ring tells me how much you love me… I love you Derek."

"I love you too Casey… with all my heart." Derek smiled before kissing her lightly.

The kiss deepened and before too long, Casey was in Derek's arms… and off the ground.

There was a quiet knock on the door, which went completely ignored by the two 'adults'.

The door slowly opened and they heard a sigh.

Casey looked to the doorway to see Marti leaning against the door frame.

"Isn't this just a beautiful sight?" she smiled at them. "My brother… is holding the woman of his dreams in his arms… And might I add that she looks very happy for a woman who was so sad to the point of crying… Are you **still** crying?!" Marti looked at Derek her smile fading. "What did you do to her? She looks happy… and yet she's still crying... You did something, I can tell."

"Marti… these are tears of joy this time." Casey responded, keeping her left hand hidden from her sight so she wouldn't see the ring. "Now… will you go downstairs and gather everyone together in the living room? We have something we want to talk to everyone about."

"Uh… sure… I guess." Marti gave them a suspicious look before walking away.

Casey slid the ring off her finger and into her pocket.

"Babe… what'd you do that for?" Derek asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Casey smiled at him. "I want to tell everyone else about my being adopted before we tell them about us being engaged."

Derek gave her an unsure look.

"Don't worry Derek… I love you and nothing they say will ever change that." Casey said before kissing his cheek lightly.

Derek smiled. "They can't change my mind either. And we're both over eighteen… so they can't stop us."

"Well then… they're waiting for us, so we'd better go down there." Casey stated before taking his hand and pulling him out of the room.

She didn't let go of his hand, not even when everyone turned t look at them.

"What do you two want to talk to us about?" Edwin asked when we walked into the room.

Derek sat in his recliner, letting me sit on the arm of it.

"I'm surprised to see you out of your room… you do know what day it is… right?" Nora gave Casey a suspicious look.

"Yes I do." Casey responded. "That's what I… or really I should say we… wanted to talk to you about."

"We?" Nora asked, quickly glancing at Derek before looking into Casey's eyes. "Are you sure you want to talk about that… right now?"

"Yes… And I do mean 'we'... Derek and I that is."

"Derek knows?"

"Yes, Derek knows. I told him." Casey looked her straight in the eyes.

"You told him… without asking me if you could?!" A hint of anger could be detected in Nora's voice.

Casey stood up, she looked angry. "Oh, I'm sorry… I didn't know that I had to ask you if I could tell someone about **my** life!"

Nora backed off, realizing that Casey was right.

"And you know what…" Casey reached into her pocket and pulled out the ring, but kept it hidden before turning to Derek. "I'm sorry Derek, but I don't want to wait any longer…"

"What are you talking about?" George asked.

"About us!" Casey turned to them and slid the ring on her finger. She held up her left hand so everyone could see the diamond ring on her ring finger.

Derek stood up and wrapped his arm around Casey's waist. "I asked her to marry me… and she said yes."

"You did what?!?" George and Nora asked in unison, both jumping to their feet.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Marti asked, walking over to them to inspect the ring. "Sure Smerek… you tell me when you made out with her in the living room, starting your relationship two years ago… but you don't tell me that you're asking her to marry you? What kind of brother are you?" Marti looked up, smirking from ear to ear.

"Sorry Smarti… I just didn't want anyone to know before Casey." Derek smiled at her.

"Congratulations!" Marti cried out before giving them both a hug.

"What kind of sister are you?" Lizzie asked, standing up and walking over to Casey. She looked appalled. "You didn't tell me you were dating Derek!" She couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, congrats D!" Edwin walked over to Derek, looking down at the ring on Casey's finger. "Nice… That must have cost you a pretty penny."

"Yeah… it did." Derek smiled at Casey. "But nothing is too expensive for the love of my life."

"I can't believe you Derek Michael Venturi!" George cried out. "You asked your **step sister** to marry you!"

"Do you even know how wrong this is?" Nora asked.

"How is it wrong?!" Casey cried out, her hands placed firmly on her hips. "It's not like George has ever slept with **my **mom!"

"Casey… your mom and I are married." George began, confusion quickly spreading over him.

"She's not talking about Nora dad… she's talking about her mom." Derek stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Nora is her mom…" Edwin stated slowly.

"Of course she's her mom! She's my mom, and we're sisters!" Lizzie cried out.

"Not quite Lizzie…" Casey said in a low voice.

"What do you mean, 'not quite'?" Lizzie looked from Casey to Nora.

"Casey… I am your mother." Nora let out a frustrated sigh.

"No, you're not **my** mother… because my mother is **dead** along with my father…" Casey's eyes burned with anger. "Do you know why my mother is dead?"

Nora swallowed hard. "Casey… calm down."

"My mother is dead because my father came home in a drunken rage one night and they got into a fight. I was there… in the room… hiding behind the couch when my dad **shot** my mom and then took his own life!"

"Case… babe…" Derek wrapped his arms around her as the tears came.

Casey shook her head and looked back at Nora. "That happened twelve years ago to this day… And that means that Derek and I really aren't related in any way."

"In that case…" George began, "congratulations!" he smiled widely at them.

"What!?!" Nora exclaimed.

George turned to look at her. "Technically, like Casey pointed out, they're not related. And besides… it's not like we could stop them anyways. Derek is nineteen and Casey is eighteen… they're both adults."

Nora sighed. "I have to say… I really shouldn't be surprised…" Nora looked at Derek and Casey, who stopped crying and had whipped away her tears. "You are perfect for each other. Casey… you're light-hearted and take things slower. You think things through. And Derek… you're spontaneous and outgoing. You live life in the fast lane and don't always think things through to the conclusion of your actions. You complete each other. You balance each other out is what I should say."

"Thanks Nora!" Casey and Derek told her in unison, walking up and hugging her.

Five and a half months later, they were married. Lizzie, Marti, and Edwin were in the wedding. Emily was the maid of honor and Sam was the best man. George walked Casey down the aisle because he'd been like her father for four years now. Nora was there and had approved of everything, crying when Derek and Casey said there vows.

When Casey threw the bouquet, Lizzie caught it. After that Lizzie and Edwin exchanged many looks and you couldn't get them apart for even a moment. Now Nora and George may be planning **another **wedding.

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**Does anyone know the drummer's name in Derek's band D-Rock? I was wondering for another story.**

**Dara Tavar**

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	2. Chapter 2

**This is a massive update for anyone reading my stories:**

**It was recently brought to my attention that someone had stolen one of my stories and, only making the smallest amount of changes possible, was passing it off on their own. I alerted the site to this plagiarism, but so far nothing has been done. The other author updated their story recently, telling me that the site has so far done nothing concerning this problem. If nothing is done about this within the next few weeks, I've come to the decision that I will delete my account on here and never again put anything on this website.**

**To anyone who still wishes to read what I write, I will happily accept a message with an email or even if you just want to give me your profile url and I'll be happy to continue writing elsewhere and send you the link where you can find my stories as long as no one steals my stuff to post it on here (if there are any particular kind of stories, a certain movie or book, tell me and I'll message you whenever I write something to do with it). If I find out something like that happens, I'll be done writing online for sure.**

**I hope this matter is resolved, because I love writing on here and getting reviews, I only wish I got more. ****I get author alerts or story alerts, but I would love more reviews. In reality, reviews only trickle in little by little and while it's nice to be put on someone's alert list, that doesn't tell me how I'm going or give me anything to think about doing for the next chapters. If you like my stories, please REVIEW and tell me how much you like them, things you want me to do, suggestions for a spin-off story(or stories)...anything will be fine.**

**Well, lets just hope this gets fixed.**

**Dara Tavar  
**


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